Anna O

Ben explains that he can only restore Anna’s hope by learning more about her. He must discover why her hope was extinguished, which requires him to understand her past mindset. Donnelly doesn’t like the idea of giving Ben confidential information, but Ben persuades him it’s necessary.

Anna didn’t have any criminal record or recorded violent tendencies before the night she killed her friends Douglas Bute and Indira Sharma. To accomplish his job, Ben needs to know the whole picture. Donnelly agrees to let Ben read Anna’s files and reach out to her family for insight, but his decision is off the record.

Ben returns to work. Donnelly wants him to be a miracle worker and wake Anna up within a week, but Ben needs more time. He interacts patiently with Anna while building a friendship with Harriet, Anna’s nurse.

One day, Harriet and Ben sit outside Anna’s room, and she asks Ben how someone can stay asleep for so long. Ben cites examples, such as those in concentration camps losing the will to live. He also states the mind can be separate from the body. Ben believes they’re still learning about the mind, so he can’t be certain. Harriet is interested in his expertise, including how he teaches Introduction to Forensic Psychology at the local college. As they get more personal, Harriet states she has a lover who is divorced and who has a child.

Anna’s files arrive. Ben peruses the documents for hours. He focuses on Melanie Fox’s statement first. She was the owner of the Farm, the wilderness resort where the crime took place.

Lola clips Dr. Benedict Prince’s face and adds it to one of her evidence boards. She’s read many forensic books, such as her latest purchase of Ben’s book on sleep crimes.

Lola tracks the events of the murders. During the Hunters versus Survivors game in the woods, Anna, Douglas, and Indira were the hunters. They were supposed to shoot paintballs at the Survivors, Anna’s mother, father, and brother Theo. Lola thinks that no one knows the secret behind it all.

Emily meets Ben at her church for the interview. Emily wonders how Ben’s work will be any different, though she apologizes for her cynicism. Ben asks for the benefit of the doubt to bring her daughter back to life.

Emily asks what he has that the other experts didn’t, and Ben assures her he thinks the mind is more powerful than the brain, which is the opposite of other clinicians. He tells her about his method to overwhelm Anna with positive stimuli—sounds, smells, voices, touch—to evoke happy memories. This way, Anna’s mind will feel safe enough to let her reemerge.

When Ben asks for the deeper emotional truth, Emily complies. She begins by saying it’s ironic Anna never opens her eyes now when she always had insomnia.

Emily shares that first, when Anna was nine, she watched a violent film during a camping trip. That night, Emily found Anna over the dead body of their family dog Buttons. Anna was standing, asleep, above Buttons, who had a knife in his side. Anna murdered the dog without realizing it. Anna was bitten by Buttons in the past, and Emily believes that maybe this was Anna’s catalyst.

Emily tried to talk to Anna, but Anna’s voice wasn’t the same. She was on autopilot. Emily could tell her daughter was sleepwalking. She walked young Anna back to bed.

Emily continues telling Ben about Anna’s past. After she found Emily had killed the dog, Emily cleaned up the mess of Button’s body and buried the dog outside. The next morning, Anna didn’t remember anything; she helped search for Buttons with everyone else. Since Emily was in politics, she didn’t want any scandals, so she decided not to get Anna diagnosed.

At 14, Anna went to boarding school and stole items while sleepwalking. Anna denied it, even though she was caught on video with her eyes open. She had no memory of the events. Anna was expelled, but Emily kept the news quiet.

Anna soon became obsessed with true crime and the novel In Cold Blood. Emily used to joke that Anna “would kill for her fifteen minutes of fame” (94). Anna wanted to be an unforgettable writer. Her daughter was troubled, but Emily didn’t worry until Anna attacked her.

On New Year’s Eve in 2019, Anna writes in her journal. Anna complains about her absent parents. Her mother is busy with politics, and her dad is glued to his phone. She leaves to party with her best friends/roommates Douglas and Indira. Afterward, Anna starts writing in this notebook. She feels true crime articles are her calling. She wants to write the next In Cold Blood this year.

Throughout the next few months, Anna, Douglas, and Indira create their start-up magazine Elementary. Anna reads In Cold Blood for the hundredth time. Like Capote, she craves a good murder for inspiration.

One year before the present, back at his office, Ben processes the story about Anna attacking Emily. On a trip to Greece for her college graduation, Anna screamed one night. Emily went to help, but Anna attacked her with open eyes. Anna was not herself but sleepwalking.

Ben talks to Bloom about Anna. Given her past, they theorize that Anna could have killed her friends and sent the text while sleepwalking, or maybe she was conscious for the text. Bloom suggests otherwise she was awake and is using sleep to get away with murder.

Emily mentioned Anna became obsessed with a case on Sally Turner, a patient from Broadmoor Hospital. Ben unnerves Bloom with the name Sally Turner, but she doesn’t tell him why.

Anna became fascinated with Sally and the Medea play. Emily gave him Anna’s copy of the Medea book with Anna’s notes. As they discuss Sally Turner, who murdered her stepchildren like Medea killed her sons in the play, Bloom gets more stressed. She tells Ben she has to attend to something and leaves.

Bloom is panicky in her office. Sally Turner and Medea rattle in her brain. She looks through her files from Broadmoor Hospital. Sally Turner murdered her stepsons on August 30th, 1999. Anna murdered her friends on August 30th, 2019—the 20th anniversary. In mysterious hints, Bloom thinks that maybe Anna’s arrival isn’t a coincidence.

Her Broadmoor file reads Patient X, a patient she’s never forgotten. Bloom feels something is very wrong.

Back in January 2019, Anna spies on Douglas’s phone because his passcode is easy. Anna snoops until she finds suspicious texts between him and Indira titled “Takeover Talk.” Douglas and Indira want to sell Elementary and push her out. Anna is upset, though unsurprised because they’ve been distant lately. Her friends also have encrypted emails she can’t unlock.

Anna reads about psychology. For Freud, she only likes his hysteria study on Anna O. She endures periods of insomnia. Anna stays up late, locks her doors to keep her from sleepwalking, and imagines dark scenes of things like Doug and Indira bleeding out.

In Anna’s room at Abbey Sleep Clinic, Harriet has no updates, but she and Ben have some friendly conversation. Harriet leaves Ben to his therapy. Ben starts with Anna’s favorite songs, which Emily told him. He then takes out Medea to read to her. Ben hopes these happy stimuli will make Anna come out of hibernation.

He gets an email on his phone from Richard Ogilvy, Anna’s father, in which he agrees to meet. Then his phone rings. Ben is going to ignore it, but it’s Bloom.

An unnamed character called X sneaks into Bloom’s home. X seems to know Bloom personally, commenting about how she’s old and out of touch. X bugged Bloom’s phones, so X knows Bloom called Ben for help.

X finds Bloom and hesitates, then thinks the murder must be done. Bloom has made the connection. X can’t be merciful.

Bloom’s fearful voice terrorizes Ben. He drives to her house, planning to do just what Bloom asked. Ben is frantic, but he gets into Bloom’s home. He finds her dead.

In February 2019, Anna arrives at her family’s holiday house. Her parents barely notice her, so she hangs out with Theo. She almost tells her family about the Elementary takeover, but she feels she can’t show weakness.

She researches different sleepwalking crimes. Anna becomes immersed in a podcast about people like Jackie, who rides her motorcycle while asleep. Others have night terrors so horrible that it ruins their marriage. Still, others commit sexual assault while asleep. She reads about the justice system and how sleepwalking can qualify as insanity or let the perpetrators go free because they’re not conscious. Anna dives deeper and finds Sally Turner’s case, which compels her. Sally is her inspiration.